Return to Answer

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                        produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this; honestly, trivial formatting is not necessary in a question title (and it doesn't look nice in the "hot questions" list, which does not render MathJax). You'll have the opportunity to do all sorts of fancy formatting in the question body. If you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$     produces     $\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. From this page:

When writing equations, LaTeX assumes that a series of letters without spaces represents a set of distinct variables and typesets them accordingly: with an extra bit of space between each of them, in order to emphasize that they are distinct entities. Therefore, if you want an actual word, use \mathit (math italics) or \mathrm (math roman): $x_\mathit{max}$, not $x_{max}$...

Similarly, $text$ is not the approved way to write italics in regular body text (for the same reason as above)...

Of course, in my example above, even my stated "right way" is not really the right way. Using the command \textit would be ideal, so that the \; spaces are unnecessary (and so that the command is semantically correct, since the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical); but this command is not (currently) available in MathJax.

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                    produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this; honestly, trivial formatting is not necessary in a question title (and it doesn't look nice in the "hot questions" list, which does not render MathJax). You'll have the opportunity to do all sorts of fancy formatting in the question body. If you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\textit{quod erat demonstrandum}$     produces     $\textit{quod erat demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. From this page:

When writing equations, LaTeX assumes that a series of letters without spaces represents a set of distinct variables and typesets them accordingly: with an extra bit of space between each of them, in order to emphasize that they are distinct entities. Therefore, if you want an actual word, use \mathit (math italics) or \mathrm (math roman): $x_\mathit{max}$, not $x_{max}$...

Similarly, $text$ is not the approved way to write italics in regular body text (for the same reason as above)...

Besides making spacing between the letters correct for text, and making the \; spaces unnecessary, the \textit command is semantically correct in my example, since the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical.

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                       produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this, or if you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$     produces     $\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. From this page:

When writing equations, LaTeX assumes that a series of letters without spaces represents a set of distinct variables and typesets them accordingly: with an extra bit of space between each of them, in order to emphasize that they are distinct entities. Therefore, if you want an actual word, use \mathit (math italics) or \mathrm (math roman): $x_\mathit{max}$, not $x_{max}$...

Similarly, $text$ is not the approved way to write italics in regular body text (for the same reason as above)...

Of course, in my example above, even my stated "right way" is not really the right way. Using the command \textit would be ideal, so that the \; spaces are unnecessary (and so that the command is semantically correct, since the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical); but this command is not (currently) available in MathJax.

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                       produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this; honestly, trivial formatting is not necessary in a question title (and it doesn't look nice in the "hot questions" list, which does not render MathJax). You'll have the opportunity to do all sorts of fancy formatting in the question body. If you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$     produces     $\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. From this page:

When writing equations, LaTeX assumes that a series of letters without spaces represents a set of distinct variables and typesets them accordingly: with an extra bit of space between each of them, in order to emphasize that they are distinct entities. Therefore, if you want an actual word, use \mathit (math italics) or \mathrm (math roman): $x_\mathit{max}$, not $x_{max}$...

Similarly, $text$ is not the approved way to write italics in regular body text (for the same reason as above)...

Of course, in my example above, even my stated "right way" is not really the right way. Using the command \textit would be ideal, so that the \; spaces are unnecessary (and so that the command is semantically correct, since the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical); but this command is not (currently) available in MathJax.

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                       produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this, or if you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$     produces     $\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. Of course, using \textit would be ideal, so that the \; space commands are unnecessary (and so that the command is semantically correct, if the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical); but this is not (currently) available in MathJax.

Markdown doesn't work in titles, so occasionally people will use MathJax as an approximation.

$quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$                       produces     $quod\;erat\;demonstrandum$

Please don't do this, or if you simply can't live without your title having formatting, do it right.

$\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$     produces     $\mathit{quod\;erat\;demonstrandum}$

There's a difference. From this page:

When writing equations, LaTeX assumes that a series of letters without spaces represents a set of distinct variables and typesets them accordingly: with an extra bit of space between each of them, in order to emphasize that they are distinct entities. Therefore, if you want an actual word, use \mathit (math italics) or \mathrm (math roman): $x_\mathit{max}$, not $x_{max}$...

Similarly, $text$ is not the approved way to write italics in regular body text (for the same reason as above)...

Of course, in my example above, even my stated "right way" is not really the right way. Using the command \textit would be ideal, so that the \; spaces are unnecessary (and so that the command is semantically correct, since the italic font is being applied to something non-mathematical); but this command is not (currently) available in MathJax.